Canadian Studies: the Hungarian Contribution

Ad Americam. Journal of American Studies 21 (2020): ISSN: 1896-9461, https://doi.org/10.12797/AdAmericam.21.2020.21.06 Licensing information: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 János Kenyeres Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0294-9714 Canadian Studies: The Hungarian Contribution Canadian Studies was launched in Hungary in 1979, when the first course in Canadian literature was offered at the English Department of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. This article is intended to explore the history of this discipline in the past 40+ years, fo- cusing on the growing awareness of Canada and its culture in Hungarian academic and intellectual life. As early as the mid-1980s, universities in Hungary offered various courses in Canadian Studies, which were followed by a large number of publications, con- ferences, and the institutionalization of the field. The article gives a survey of Canadian Studies in Hungary in the international context, showing the ways in which interaction with colleagues in Europe and beyond, and with institutions, such as the Central Euro- pean Association for Canadian Studies, has promoted the work of Hungarian researchers. The article also discusses the fields of interest and individual achievements of Hungarian scholars, as well as the challenges Canadian Studies has faced. Key words: Canadian Studies; Hungary; university; scholarship; research; history The study of Canada by Hungarians is usually considered a recent development compared to academic research on the history and culture of other nations. Howev- er, evidence shows that, in a sense, the history of contacts between the two countries goes back several centuries. It was in 1583 when the first Hungarian, Stephen Parme- nius of Buda, set foot in what is Newfoundland today. He was a poet and chronicler who arrived in the area of St. John’s in August 1583 and who is remembered today— as evidenced by a memorial plaque placed in St. John’s—as the first European to write poems on this part of the “new found land” (Balázs, “Parmenius István” 61).1 1 When soon after their departure from Newfoundland, Parmenius and his shipmates were lost at sea, Edward Hayes, Captain of the Golden Hind, reported the tragedy in these words: “...Amongest whom was drowned a learned man, an Hungarian, born in the Citie of Buda, called there of Budaeus, who of pietie and zeale to good attempts, adventured in this action, minding to record in the Latine tongue, the gest and things worthy of remembrance, happening in this discoverie, to the honour of our nation, the same being adorned with the 82 János Kenyeres Parmenius was a member of Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s expedition to North America, “whose task was set by Queen Elizabeth I to establish English colonies in the New World” (Jakabfi, “Paving the Way” 158). Parmenius was not fortunate enough to make it back to Europe; on August 29, 1583, his ship went aground near Sable Island or Cape Breton and he was drowned at sea (Quinn, “PARMENIUS” 2003). Several centuries had to pass before the next Hungarians, this time agricultural workers, arrived in what was then the Dominion of Canada in the 1880s. They were typically young men in their twenties, farmers who became the earliest Hungarian settlers in Canada. It was this group of Hungarians who provided the first reports on Canada to Hungarians by their correspondence with family left behind at home and through their occasional personal visits to the old homeland. Canadian Studies was far from being born at this time, nonetheless this was the starting point of a growing interest in Canada. As for immigration statistics, 8,000 people of Hungarian ethnic origin emigrated from the territory of Hungary to Canada in 1870-1914; 33,000 in 1921-1941; and over 49,000 in 1945-1970, making it over 90,000 in total between 1870 and 1970 (Bődy 28). The largest wave of immigration followed the 1956 Hungarian Revolution when over 37,000 Hungarians were offered a new home in Canada. According to the 2016 census, 348,085 people are of Hungarian ancestry in Canada, 83,400 of whom are of a single ethnic origin, while the rest, 264,685 respondents, are of multiple ethnic backgrounds, Hungarian included (Statistics Canada). Given that a significant number of Hungarians arrived in Canada already in the 1920s (according to the 1931 census, roughly 40,000 Hungarians lived in the country), Hungary opened a Consulate General in Montreal in 1922 and a Consulate in Winnipeg in 1927 (J. Nagy 12), which were the first official Hungarian diplomatic missions in the country. These consular offices operated for about two decades until, as a result of opposing military alliances during World War II, Britain severed its diplomatic ties with Hungary. Ottawa soon followed London, deciding on the closure of Hungary’s two diplomatic missions in Canada on April 8, 1941 and de- claring a state of war between the two countries on January 21, 1942 (J. Nagy 12-13). Subsequently, until September 1948, the Embassy of Sweden, and thereafter Poland provided for the representation of Hungary in Canada until 1964 when full and mutual diplomatic relations were eventually established between the two countries. This paved the way for closer economic and cultural ties between Canada and Hungary. It was partly due to the aforementioned presence of Hungarians in Canada, as well as the strengthening of diplomatic, cultural, and economic relations between the two countries and the relative freedom “goulash Communism” allowed in Hungary that in the late 1970s and early 1980s the opportunity presented itself for Canadian Studies to emerge as a distinct discipline in Hungary, a development that occurred relatively early as compared to other countries in Central Europe. eloquent stile of this Orator, and rare Poet of our time” (qtd. Balázs, “Budai Parmenius” 8). The collected works of Parmenius, translated from Latin into English and supplemented with commentaries, are available in the book The New Found Land of Stephen Parmenius: Life and Writings of a Hungarian Poet, Drowned on a Voyage from Newfoundland, 1583. See Quinn, The New Found Land. Canadian Studies: The Hungarian Contribution 83 Nevertheless, Canadian Studies arose with a delay in Hungary, just like elsewhere in the world.2 This belatedness is explained by the fact that English departments at universities had traditionally focused on the study of English and American literature and culture, and Canadian literature, together with other “new literatures,” had been largely neglected for long decades. The first English Department in Hungary was established in 1886 in what then was called the University of Budapest, the pre- decessor of today’s Eötvös Loránd University, whose roots go back to the University of Nagyszombat (Trnava), founded originally as a Jesuit institution in 1635. In 1886, when the English Department was established, and for many decades thereafter, the central focus was on English literature and the study of English, and even a scholar- ly interest in American literature and linguistics was a later development. Although American authors were part of the curriculum for many decades, an independent Department of American Studies came into existence only in 1994, together with departments representing other academic fields. It was in this context that Anna Jakabfi offered the first Canadian course in Hun- gary at the English Department of Eötvös Loránd University in 1979, just a year after she had earned her doctoral degree with the thesis 20th Century Canada in the Novels of Hugh MacLennan (Jakabfi, “Kanada stúdiumok” 427). 1979 is therefore regarded as the starting date of Canadian Studies in Hungary, a field which soon began to be em- braced by other Hungarian universities in the mid-1980s. Over the course of the next decades, Anna Jakabfi gave a variety of courses in Canadian literature, organized Canada Day events for her students, assisted her younger colleagues in their academic career, authored one and edited two collections of essays in Canadian Stud- ies, and organized a major Canadian Studies conference in 1999 in Seregélyes, which was attended by renowned scholars and cultural figures from Europe and Canada. The professors who initiated Canadian Studies courses in Hungary in the 1980s saw that Canada was both a fascinating area of research and an unchartered academic field, and they quickly developed a keen interest in its exploration. Besides Anna Jakabfi, Judit Molnár at the University of Debrecen, Katalin Kürtösi at the University of Szeged, and Éva Martonyi at the University of Pécs were the first to give courses in Canadian literature. Árpád Vígh from the University of Pécs was the first professor to study French Canadian literature in terms of its linguistic features. Linguistics was also represented by Tibor Oláh and later by Zsuzsanna Simonffy and Dóra Pődör. 2 In Canada, the Canadian Studies Foundation was set up in 1970 (Jaumain 13), while a Centre for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, U.S., was created as early as 1969. The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States was founded in 1971 and was the first national association for Canadian Studies in the world (Jaumain 17). In Europe, Canadian Studies Centres were established in 1970 and 1974 at the Université de Bordeaux and at the University of Edinburgh, respectively (Jaumain 17). The Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) was established in 1973 at Queen’s University, Ontario, as a forum for Canadian scholars and the International Council for Canadian Studies was founded in 1981 in Halifax. By that time, national associations for Canadian Studies had already been in existence in Great Britain (1975), France (1976), Italy (1979), Japan (1979), and the German-speaking countries (1980) (Jaumain 20).

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